Seriously Good Champagne -- Ship or Give Away?

Getting the kitchen ready to pack out on Monday and looking with dismay at a small collection of nice wine and a couple of bottles of Billecart Salmon champagne. The household stuff is going to be packed into containers and shipped over to Europe -- a 6 - 8 week process, in summer. Is there any chance the wine and champagne will be OK, or should I just give it away?

Voted the Best Answer!

However, you don't know how long the container will be sitting on a dock, baking in the summer sun. If it were winter, this would not be an issue. There are no guarantees whether or not it will be stored below the waterline or not either.

The other thing would be customs. Any alcohol may delay delivery of your belongings to your destination and you will certainly have to pay duties.

Thanks. That's what I was afraid of. We're both Foreign Service, so we get a certain amount of diplomatic courtesy -- we can bring in a reasonable amount of wine without a customs hassle -- but the shipping containers will be on a dock and/or in uncontrolled storage, with varying temperatures for two months. Oh, well. Thank you both!

Thinking about it, there's a very good chance your containers would be stored above the waterline or even on the deck. Container ship operators put heavier containers toward the bottom for stability/safety reasons.

Your containers full of furniture and personal belongings would likely be packed in a manner in which they would not be particularly heavy, so they would end up toward the top.

There are companies who specialise in shipping wine. It might be pricey but if the bottles are worthed! Ask your shipping company. When we moved from Miami we used Crown and we were very happy with their service. From all the one we used ( I have done at least 20 relocations) they were the most professional for long hauls.
When we moved from here to Miami we hid some bottles of wine under the house in a crawl space of the basement.
When we returned after 5 years they were still there.
We found them again by chance as we had forgotten about them.
Some were ok, others were not. We took our chance !
But it was a fun treasure hunt experience !

If the shipping proves impossible, drink and enjoy, as Chef June suggests.
If too much to consume before you leave, yes give some of the precious bottles away to friends and acquaintances you are leaving behind and who will enjoy them.
A lovely parting gift and/or a way to "pay it forward"...